As UAB’s enrollment increases, so does the demand to live on campus.  Even though not required, many first-time freshmen within the 7 county area applied for Fall 2017 housing, and UAB Housing received our largest number of applications ever.  In an effort to accommodate every freshman, we delayed making assignments for some of the returning housing residents.   This was frustrating for these students because they wanted to know for sure they would have housing – and where.  Historically, UAB Housing receives a steady number of cancellations all summer; however, this past year, we did not.  Most of our upperclassmen cancellations were received after all assignments had been made – and most students who had inquired earlier in the summer had secured other housing.

Knowing that demand will continue to increase, UAB Housing wants to improve the application process by encouraging students who no longer need housing to notify our office sooner so that we can successfully assign those spaces to other students.  Students who cancel late in the summer have an impact on the entire process.  It affects the assignments of students who could have been assigned to a more desired building or type of room had those spaces been available sooner.  Also, students waiting for housing have often already found other housing when late vacancies occur.    With this in mind, we are evaluating our application cancellation policy.

If a student cancels their housing application after June 1^st, they forfeit their prepayment.  After that date passes, there has been no incentive for a student to notify us that they no longer needed their space until after fall housing charges were placed on their student account.   To encourage earlier notification, UAB Housing is implementing a tiered cancellation penalty.  While we do not wish to charge additional fees, it is necessary to provide a motivation for students to notify us of their change in plans so we are able to more effectively assign other students to these vacancies. 

Fall 2018 Upperclassmen Cancellation Policy

Due to the demand for on-campus housing during the fall term, if student cancels after May 15, 2018, they will be assessed a cancellation penalty in addition to forfeiting 250.00 prepayment.  Penalty amounts are based on date of cancellation, and outlined below. 

UAB Housing is also evaluating our current resident reapplication process.  In order to better estimate demand, we have emailed all current first-time freshmen residents to find out how many are considering living on campus for Fall 2018.  We have asked them to go to the UAB Housing website, log into MyHousing, and complete the Fall 2018 Interest Survey.  It takes less than 3 minutes - there is no commitment, and no money is required to complete the survey.  Freshmen who submit this survey will have the opportunity to apply for Fall 2018 first in February 2018.  The deadline to complete this survey is Wednesday, November 29^th at 5pm.  

Before implementing the tiered contract cancellation structure noted above, we would like to get feedback from parents about the proposed structure and other aspects of housing operations. While this only applies to less than 3% of our student population, we value feedback from parents. Please click the link below to access the survey.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at studenthousing@uab.edu.

UAB Housing Operations Survey